Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Walk in space gets busy for astronauts
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 4, 2006
WASHINGTON - Two spacewalking astronauts Thursday found the reward for working so well and so fast is - extra work. American astronaut Jeff Williams and German astronaut Thomas Reiter were so efficient at important repairs to a key new cooling system for the international space station that they finished that primary job 90 minutes early in their 5-hour, 54-minute spacewalk. But did NASA let them take time to enjoy the view from 250 miles up? No. Mission controllers pulled out a lengthy to-do list. Install a floodlight on an exterior railcar, put a vent valve in the science lab, remove a faulty global positioning system antenna, move a foot restraint for future spacewalks, retrieve a connecting device and take a picture of a scratch on the space station. At one point when some of the extra jobs were done and Mission Control couldn't radio up for a minute or so, Williams and Reiter considered the beautiful view. "Just hanging out," Williams said. "You can no longer hang out, I have more work for you," spacecraft communicator Stephen Bowen interrupted. NASA ran through their planned "get-aheads" - tasks set aside if there is extra time - and came up with yet more work. After Williams finished taking photographs of the scratch on the space station, he practically pleaded: "You did say that was our last task." It was. The chores done, the spacewalk ended 36 minutes early. "Thomas, it feels good that they run of stuff for us to do," Williams told Reiter. "And we will never ever let it happen again," Bowen said. "Wait till you see what we have for you next week." The mix of work on this spacewalk, which does not have the derring-do of Hubble Telescope repairs or other construction work, is what will be happening frequently over the next several years, said lead spacewalk officer Paul Boehm. More work will be done after the shuttle Atlantis arrives, later this month.
[Last modified August 4, 2006, 01:43:30]
Share your thoughts on this story
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor